Gas discovery will increase Turkey’s strategic power: Bahçeli

ANKARA

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) chair Devlet Bahçeli has said Turkey’s discovery of a 320 billion cubic meter natural gas reserve in the Black Sea will increase its strategic power while decreasing its dependence on foreign sources.

“The fact that we are 72 percent dependent on foreign energy sources weakens our hands while negatively affecting our budget balance and balance of payments. Therefore, the discovery of a natural gas reserve in the Black Sea will increase both our economic security and strategic power,” Bahçeli said in a written statement on Aug. 24.

Turkey has announced that it found a natural gas reserve off its Black Sea coast that would meet its needs for seven years with estimations that the area has more energy potential. The government hopes that the gas to be extracted from the Sakarya Gas Area will be available for public use by 2023.

Describing the find as a “brilliant achievement,” Bahçeli stressed that this discovery will help Turkey resolve some of its big problems.

“At the point we have arrived, our drilling ships continue to explore natural resources in our sovereign waters of the Black Sea and Mediterranean by eliminating all kinds of foreign pressure. It’s known that there are more reserves,” he stated.

Slamming those who are “trying to undermine” the discovery of this reserve, Bahçeli suggested that Turkey’s move to reduce its energy dependence has already “disturbed” some countries and powers.

The MHP leader has congratulated President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Energy Minister Fatih Dönmez for the discovery of the natural gas, stressing, “Let’s not forget that energy is the strategic key of the future.”